March 15, 1918: Strode Bill Approved

Just a quick post to note that the Strode Bill making coeducation at the College of William and Mary official was approved on March 15, 1918.

The bill's sponsor, Senator Aubrey E. Strode of Amherst, Virginia, may be better known for drafting Virginia's Eugenical Sterilization Act (1924), which he later argued in favor of before the U.S. Supreme Court as Buck v. Bell (1927). Strode's support for coeducation, which began in 1910 with his proposal of a bill to bring a coordinate college (a women's college) to the University of Virginia continued as he supported coeducation at VPI after William and Mary brought women to campus. To learn more about coeducation at VPI (Virginia Tech), including Strode's role, see Access and Inclusion: Women Students at VPI, 1914-1964 and for more information about coeducation at the University of Virginia, see Breaking and Making Tradition: Women at the University of Virginia.



For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.